Tale of Two Speaking Engagements a.k.a. What is Wrong with Linux

We are very grateful for two events we participated in on the first quarter of the year 2015.

First is the IT Mania 2015, held last 31 January in AMA University, Quezon City, organized by the Junior Philippine Computer Society (JPCS) led by Marigold Cardeño in coordination with Freelancer's community manager, Nikko Magalona. Being a former JPCS Research and Development Committee Director during my college days, it was like meeting old friends.

And the Web and Database Development seminar held last 27 February in Panpacific University Northern Philippines (PUNP), Urdaneta, Pangasinan, organized for and by PUNP Computer Engineering students, namely Joemar F. Arreola, Butz M. Bautista, Marlon E. Daileg, Aljon S. Equila, Khert Patrick V. Gumangan, Julius P. Manangbao, Junipher Manangbao, Greggy T. Mendoza, Andrew Martin M. Millan, Don Lorence C. Panayon, Mark Oliver G. Rabena, Ralph Christopher S. Sadio, Darien Vaughn E. Soria, Christian Justine E. Velasco, and Mark Jayson E. Zambale.

Moral lesson: if you want to be seen in the groupie, don't stand behind the brightly turned on monitor or be X-Men's Nightcrawler

Hopefully what we have imparted would be found relevant and valuable for their career moving forward into the IT industry.

Beyond Open Source: The Latest on Microsoft and Apple

To further boost the competitive edge,  after Microsoft outsourced their CEO post to India, closed-door discussions are on the way to purchase Red Hat and finally roll-out the long overdue and much ballyhooed vaporware codenamed Microsoft Linux.

Meanwhile at Apple, in a bold move to dispose old Intel-based Macs in preparation for the release of A7-based systems across the board, Steve Wozniak performs cameo role as the delivery boy.

Options on Budget Multi-user Computing

The internet shop is probably the most common business for internet-savvy technophiles with entrepreneurial pursuit. I kept away from it for so long because, whether you go for business-only internet access or cater to online gamers, you might as well have invested somewhere else given that the PC hardware depreciates quickly, new and better hardware can appear any time at lower cost, and setting up online gaming access is more of a gamble since players could always go for new and better games that you have to buy just to keep them coming back.

It all translates to intensive investment and cut-throat price competition with neighboring Internet shops. At the end of the day, practically all shops in a particular neighborhood, unless you're the only Internet shop in your area, will luckily just break even or lose.

Operating Systems Utopia: Alternative, Academic Systems and the System of the Future

My background with and enthusiasm for free and open source operating systems started when, back in college here and then here, I needed to use a computer and there's only MS-DOS (and its GUI for your personal confuser, Windows) together with its quirks and virus bandwagon, not to mention the agony of inconvenience they bring. As I mentioned in my previous article, I learned to program computer viruses and realized there's no creative, social or educational benefit from it. Frustrated, I pined for the day I can have an operating environment that's impervious to computer viruses, can run multiple applications, is free (haven't yet imagined it's source code is also accessible) and most importantly, shouldn't crash (at least compared to DOS and Windows that pulls this stunt on a regular basis).

What a Tablet Computer Could and Should Be

With all the hype over Apple's iPad and the feasibility of having your own custom-made touchscreen tablet computer, I think we deserve a better user experience of how we can acquire and interact with a touchscreen tablet computer (which from here onwards we will refer to as tablet computers to save on tongue twisting effort). We will not discuss the usual desirables, like durable and eco-friendly parts and components, fast responding user interface, smooth graphics, and high fidelity (that's oldspeak for hi-fi) sound, they should be standard features.

Below is a list of proposed improvements every tablet computer could and should have:

• Have Dvorak keyboard layout as option
• Make Internet access via Wi-fi AND Bluetooth easy
• Fast, compact, standard compliant web browser
• Open standard video and audio support
• Text-to-speech book and news reader built-in
• Must be social network agnostic
• Interface port
• No cellular phone capability
• Use BSD operating system instead

Below are the rationale for the proposals we have above.